Headphone jack doesnt recognize headphones or external speakers

I too have been experiencing this issue with my MacBook Pro 13" (Mid 2009).

It seems to be solely a software issue, because the headphone port will work fine for a while, and it will work however many times I plug or unplug headphones. But every so often, when I wake it from sleep, the headphone port will no longer fully work. It will only detect headphones or external speakers if they are already plugged in when the MacBook wakes up, and if you unplug them, it will not detect them if you plug them back in. Rebooting the machine is the only way of fixing the issue, but it eventually returns.

I do not see the red light or experience distorted sound, so this is a different issue than the ones I see elsewhere on this board.

This issue was also something I experienced with the default factory install that my MacBook Pro came with, and also after a clean install.

Have you, original poster, found a workaround? Since this is hard to replicate, it's not feasible for me to go to book an appointment with a Genius. I guess calling AppleCare is my best option?

Message was edited by: Visnaut
Reason: Clarity and grammar.

This is the exact problem I'm having, too.

Sometimes the jack just suddenly stops recognizing headphones or speakers when I plug them in, and I have to sleep my MacBook and wake it up again to get it to acknowledge that the headphone jack is being used. I guess I'm glad it's only a software problem, but I'd still love to fix it if anybody has any ideas?

I also seem to be having this issue. Noticed it for the first time last night.

Message was edited by: Bullzie

I've been having this same problem as well. It doesn't happen every time I bring my laptop out of sleep mode, only every few days or so. My current best hypothesis is that it has something to do with VMWare Fusion Version 3.0.0 (204229), which I installed right around the time the problem started happening. And although I don't have solid statistics on this, it seems that the problem only happens when I have Win XP running in Fusion when I put my Macbook to sleep (but, again, the problem doesn't happen every time, or even that frequently, so it's hard to characterize it very well).

Does anybody else who's had this audio problem occur also run Fusion 3.0.0? Does anybody have any other ideas as to what the cause may be? Even though it doesn't happen very frequently, it's still very annoying.

Same issue here. I have found if I plug them in, put the machine to sleep, and reawake, the headphones work fine then.

I do not have (or ever had) VMWare Fusion installed, so I do not think it's related to that.

And to confirm, I continue to have this issue in 10.6.2. I still haven't gone into an Apple Store to see what they say, but I might soon.

Message was edited by: Visnaut

I was getting this problem too. And I got my Macbook Pro replaced over it. But it still exists.
When I plug in the headphone after waking from sleep, this turns up in my dmesg (sudo dmesg from terminal)

09-12-06 2:14:51 AM kernel Sound assertion UNHANDLED REQUEST: 2 at state machine position 14
09-12-06 2:14:51 AM kernel Sound assertion ""AppleMikeyDevice UNHANDLED REQUEST at state kSTATE _DISABLE_MIKEY_FORSLEEP"" failed in "/SourceCache/AppleHDA/AppleHDA-174.1.1/AppleMikeyDriver/AppleMikeyDevice.cpp" at line 1852 goto handler

System requires a reboot to fix the problem.

Same issue for me.

*I find if I plug in the headphones/speakers and close the lid and allow it to go to sleep and open it back up all is well.*

This is not an acceptable solution though, so please create an Apple Update to resolve the issue. _*It is clearly related to software.*_

Also, it has nothing to do with vmware since in none of my cases did I have it running. I have vmware version 2 installed and no services run for it in the background.

I've got this same problem. It is intermittent so next time it happens I will look into the suggestions of closing the lid and putting it to sleep instead of a restart. I sure hope apple is working on a solution.

Same here. Thanks for the advice on sleeping the macbook and then waking it again. It worked, but is obviously not a long term solution. Please let me know if you find out anything else. Thanks!

E

I have started to get the same issue too. Note: I did not have this problem a month ago. Bought my MacBook Pro 13" in September, 2009. Therefore, I am not entirely sure if this is just a software issue... Or might it be the latest update that messed this up? If it is a software issue, everybody with the same settings should be affected by this problem.

Just chiming in that I am experiencing the same problem. Occasionally the OS won't detect that I have plugged in headphones. Putting to sleep and waking back up seems to fix the problem. I'm also getting this message in terminal:

Sound assertion UNHANDLED REQUEST: 2 at state machine position 14
Sound assertion ""AppleMikeyDevice UNHANDLED REQUEST at state kSTATE _DISABLE_MIKEY_FORSLEEP"" failed in "/SourceCache/AppleHDA/AppleHDA-179.1.4/AppleMikeyDriver/AppleMikeyDevice.cpp" at line 1839 goto handler

Clearly a software issue, so hopefully we'll see a fix.

Same problem here... hope they fix this.

I am also seeing this problem with a 13" MacBook Pro using OS X 10.6.2, along with the following info seen using dmesg

AppleMikeyDevice UNHANDLED REQUEST